VirtuaCon was awesome. It was one of the best convention
experiences I’ve ever had- on or offline.
I ran three games; a fourth didn’t go because I had a brief
crisis that ate up the morning. I played with a dozen+ amazing gamers. I participated
in five panels. I got to pop into the online tavern several times and talk with
role-players I’d met before and some I’d only seen on RPG Geek. The con was well
managed, they had prizes for the GMs, and I absolutely loved it. Once again RPGGeek proves how it brings the awesomeness of its community. Good games encourage
more games.
Below is a quick summary of my three sessions. I’ve also
provided the video, if you like watching online rpg sessiond. I
check them out from time to time to see how other GMs run and handle the table.
Below each video I’ve included a link to a YouTube playlist of the same session,
but recorded to show the Roll20 app. If you’re curious about how
that plays, I recommend checking out all of "Super-Rebels" or the last third of "Science City."
THIRTY DAYS TO SAVE SCIENCE CITY
The Pitch: Science City, 1937. Once a shining beacon of
progress and hope following the defeat of the Kansegu alien invasion, darkness
now covers Science City. Some hint at strange forces behind the transformation
of this island paradise. But clearly corruption, urban decay, foreign agents,
and criminal influence have made Science City a hotbed of vice and crime.
You’re going to fix that.
You’re a superbeing with amazing powers and an equally
difficult task. The Transatlantic League, the world-renowned team of
superheroes has selected your group to fix Science City. But you only have
thirty days. How you decide to do that is up to you: quiet, loud, soft, hard,
above board or from the shadows. Will you prove that heroes can make a
difference and keep yourselves above the muck?
I’ll set the stage and you’ll figure out what to fix and how
to do that. Play involves a mix of investigation, social interaction, problem
solving, and the occasional head thumping, should you so choose. System: Venture City Stories, Fate Core.
I gave the players an overwhelming challenge right away. Invited to join a famed superhero group, The Transatlantic League, they'd first have to undertake a secret mission. A supervillain had issued a private threat: the heroes had thirty days to clean up Science City. This wasn't the first time this madwoman had made such demands. Two years earlier the Iron Gale issued an ultimatum about Monaco. The famed superteam had simply thought it part of some elaborate ruse- only to be shocked when an earthquake leveled the city. Now the League was caught- they could not be seen as giving into supervillain demands, but they could not simply stand by. Hence the PCs would be undertake this without official sanction.(For more, see this post.)
The group began with preliminary questioning- trying to
get a feel for the industries and level of corruption in the city. They
isolated the three most obvious threats and followed up with queries about
those. After some discussion they opted to go into Science City mostly out in
the open, arriving as new heroes taking up the mantle of the fallen superhero, the Watchman
and his lost comrades. At the same time they kept one player, The Phantom, off the radar and their doppelganger, That Guy, assumed another superhero ID. That would allow them to act
independently. The players spent a little time working on minor crime and using their
network of agents and contacts to get a better sense of the city. They established some aspects in shaping public perception. Eventually they
uncovered a couple of other major threats hidden with Science City.
Phantom targeted one group, The Sundown Boys, and discovered one of
their edges: access to and maps of underground networks throughout the city.
After some discussion the team decided to hit the Sundown Boys decisively-
rolling up the three highest members and a chunk of the gang. A
surgical strike took them down quickly. The speed of the operation meant
that the team gathered additional useful info.
They followed that up by putting PR pressure on city
officials to ensure that Sundown Boys couldn’t simply walk out of police
custody. Instead corrupt local officers and lawyers would have to hold off.
They traced a connection between the DA and another group, Oriflamme, indicating his debts to
them. That led them to follow up on Oriflamme. Materials found on the Sundown
Boys showed a possible location for the base of the late Watchman. That seemed
to coincide with Oriflamme’s zone. They tracked an unusual ship and
discovered it servicing an underwater base. The group took out the vessel and then
raided the base which turned out to be in the hands of Oriflamme. In the hard
fought battle the group took on a dozen henchmen as well as three
supers, but triumphed in the end. They discovered the head of Oriflamme
was the Watchman’s son, who had used his father’s info on crime in Science City to
carve an empire for himself after slaying his father.
GUARDS OF ABASHAN
The Pitch: Another day on the mean streets of Abashan. In a
town of fantasy adventure it’s up to you and your fellow guards to patrol your
district, quell riots, take down monstrous invaders, break up foreign
conspiracies, shut down wild magicks, make friends in the community, and stop
crazed adventurers. Beginning with a morning briefing you must figure out how
to prioritize assignments, shirk duties, protect the innocent, and perhaps even
earn a little extra coin…
You’ll be able to pick which case you want to run down and
how you want to fix things. Play involves a mix of investigation, social
interaction, problem solving, and the occasional head thumping.
I’ve run Guards of Abashan several times. It’s based on my home campaign, with the characters echoing the PCs. I usually run
it with Action Cards. Since I haven’t yet figured out how to get that to work
with Roll20 I translated it over to Fate Core. The session beganwith their sergeant giving them a little bit of a dressing down and briefing them on three cases available: victimized murderhobos, a warehouse
fire, or a ghostly thief. I like to let the party argue out which case they
ought to follow up on. That gives them a chance to find their character’s voice
and establish relationships. In this case, the group opted to look into the
warehouse fire.
They went to the scene and began canvassing. They
discovered that the warehouse owner, Abniro the Jackal, was paid up with the
Thieves Guild and well liked as a distributor of wine and olive oil.
Investigation of the ruins and witness statements suggested a magical source,
but not a drunken mage. Instead it seemed something had fallen from the sky.
The Gnome Healer headed off to check on the local firefighting Vigiles and
discovered they had actually stolen goods from the warehouse during the
fire. Witness info and strong-arming the Vigile head lead to a discovery.
They’d allowed a scavenger to go through the smoldering ruins afterwards and
he’d discovered something.
While chasing that lead down they crashed into the
middle of a riot. On one side, disciples of a Butterfly God. On the other,
worshippers of a Deity of Masonry. The group rousted the followers and then
threw themselves in the middle of the fray, with fist and sabre bringing the
two leaders to heel. They turned out to be newly anointed Avatars of their very
tiny gods. That morning they’d been raised up and sent out to discover a potent
divine artifact which had arrived. Putting two and two together the PCs rushed off again to find their scavenger.
They caught him and discovered what had crashed: a
large cosmic egg. Which, to their chagrin, they found out the thief had gifted
to his girlfriend, a Dwarven baker. Hustling down the streets they discovered
another Avatar on the march- this time of a less small god, a war deity also
determined to secure the Egg. Part of the group stormed the bakery while one
headed off to intercept. A skirmish ensued, with some back up arriving later-
but the duelist among the group managed to bring down the avatar after taking serious hits. The others secured the Egg before it could be completely
hard-boiled and made a desperate run to take it back to the precinct and secure
it against any and all divine seizures.
LEGION OF SUPER-REBELS
The Pitch: In 2112, Chancellor Helagard seized control of the
Earth at the behest of his alien masters, the Kansegu. He moved quickly to take
out the world’s superbeings through sleeper agents and his own loyal cadre of
Psychic-powered henchpersons. Nine years have passed and the Kansegu ave
finally cemented their control. All opposition has been crushed.
Except for you.
You’re among the last free superbeings, waging an
underground campaign against the invaders. Now a desperate gamble may unlock
the secret to defeating the Chancellor and his Kansegu puppetmasters. But first
you will need to find Tesla’s Brain! System: ICONS Assembled.
This was my first session with Icons Assembled. After letting the group pick their characters, I threw them into the middle of things. An agent of the resistance, The Phantom (a PC
from the first game), had been captured by Helagard’s forces. He had been
looking into a way to strike back at Helagard and likely had valuable
information. He needed to be retrieved- preferably alive. Their target would be
a massive patrol robot currently making its way back to an internment
camp. The group confirmed robot's likely route and decided to
sneak close before engaging it as it crossed a river. That would give
the gun-platform less of a chance to make drastic moves or escape.
The group split and entered via hatches in the battle-bot’s
legs. They met minimal resistance and began to fight their way upwards.
They kept any alarm or alert from sounding which both helped and
hurt. They ambushed the crew in the engine room (including a super
security officer), but unsecured hatches in the robot's feet flooded once it
entered the water. One of the team fell to keep the KO’d crew from
drowning. The team fought their way forward, damaging control and systems-
leading to the robot falling in the middle of the river and effectively turning
the whole map. They located Phantom, defeated the baddies, and after some
confusion managed to make their escape.
Back at their HQ, their cell leader, Doctor X (another PC
from the first session) gave them the low-down. Tesla understood the energies
powering Helagard’s super-soldiers. However Tesla’s brain had been stolen by
the arch-villain, The Iron Gale, decades earlier. Phantom had discovered the
likely location of her base, under the ruins of Science City. He'd also obtained a
medallion which could act as a key. However, Helagard’s forces were on
site- apparently digging in an effort to break into the base. The group took
off and confirmed this information. They surveyed the forces and spotted
several superhuman as well as elite Kansegu alien troops. Their excavations
seemed close- and the group discovered that their enemy’s efforts had apparently
already set up the base’s defenses. In scouting, the resident team ninja
discovered another entrance, triggered by the medallion.
Descending into the base, the team encountered several
traps- including an electrified floor and an automated gun turret. While the
lair, with its shag carpet and wet bar, had been abandoned for a long time, it
had a strange pungent odor. The group soon discovered the source of the smell:
a force of power-armor clad cyber-apes who assaulted them from multiple
directions as they made their way through. The group fought a
desperate running battle, but managed to turn the base’s defenses back on the
apes. They blew through and managed to locate Tesla’s brain- even as Helagard’s eam broke in from another section of the facility. They grabbed the brain
capsule and took off, but not before the ninja set the base to blow up in a
montage of flames and shocked bad guys.
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