Robin

Here's the first of my writeups for the teen Titans, Robin! I'm designing a Marvel event that's a reboot of the Teen Titans cartoon series. I plan to write up as many Titans as I can, grabbing people from the later seasons of the cartoon as well as other DC heroes too.

Robin (Dick Grayson)
Affiliations:

Solo d10 Buddy d6 Team d8

Distinctions:

I'm nobody's sidekick!
Flying Grayson
Professional Crimefighter

Power Sets:

Vigilante Training
Enhanced Reflexes d8
Enhanced Stamina d8
SFX: Counterattack – On a reaction against a Physical Stress attack action, inflict Physical Stress with your effect die at no PP cost, or spend a PP to step it up by +1.
SFX: Focus – If a pool includes a Vigilante Training power, you may replace two dice of equal size with one die +1 step larger.
Limit: Exhausted – Shutdown any Vigilante Training power to gain 1 PP. Recover by activating an opportunity or during a Transition scene.

Utility Belt
Bo staff and Birdarangs (Attack) d8
Swingline (Movement) d6
SFX: Bola – Add a D6 and step up your effect die by +1 when inflicting a “Tied up” complication at range.
Limit: Gear – Shutdown Utility Belt and gain 1 PP. Take an action vs. the Doom Pool to recover.

Specialties:
Combat Master d10
Crime Expert d8
Covert expert d8
Acrobatic Master d10
Tech Expert d8

Milestones:

Shadow of the Bat
1 XP the first time in a scene when you insist that you're not a sidekick
3 XP when you call on your training with the Batman or your reputation as the Boy Wonder
10 XP when you accept the Batman's influence on your career or vow to never become like him

“Titans, Go!”
1 XP when you perform a support action in a team
3 XP when you come up with a plan in battle
10 XP when you're declared the leader fo the team, or you step aside and allow someone else to lead

GM Style

I recently found out about GM merit badges here, and decided to try and pin down my style of running a game. Here goes:

• Story - The events in my games will form an interesting story. it's not pre-written, but I try to employ storytelling techniques such as three act structure, foreshadowing, and cliffhangers. Major NPCs will have unique personalities and at least cursory backgrounds.
• Exploration - My games take place in interesting and, for the most part, unexplored, locations. Characters have little idea what they'll find when they journey past the edge of the map, and new discoveries could have far-reaching consequences.
• Mystery - Either by intrigue or legend, the facts are usually hidden from characters in my games. It'll take effort and determination to uncover the truth.
• Mirror - I take ideas from the players and add them to my bag of tricks. You'll never know if you guessed correctly or if I took your idea and made it happen.
• Rule Zero - In my games, the GM is the final word on what works and what doesn't. I try not to mess with the rules willy-nilly, but I like to improvise and hate when the rules get in the way of a fun game for all. My goal is to not break any PC's abilities, however.
• Destined for Greatness - Characters in my games represent exceptional members of society, and are a cut above the common man (or woman). Ability scores will be determined by generous methods, and characters will get opportunities to do great things, if they wish. In return, players are expected to put some effort into their characters.

I figure, even if this isn't a completely accurate representation of how I GM, it'll at least give me something to fall back on in dire straits. When I'm completely at a loss, I'll think back to these statements and pick the choice that reinforces them.

Floating Island dream

when I was little, i lived on this floating island. It was windy and dry, like a little desert about a quarter mile across. It looked like a jagged upside-down cone sitting in the sky above a bay on the coast of Oregon.

I went there again recently. they'd put in a highway overpass that led in, even though nobody visited anymore. when we left, they hollowed out the bottom and put an expensive garage for rich people to store their cars. It's safe because no one ever went there. So safe, the keys for all these cars were stored on a little rack on each level. While I was exploring this garage, car thieves showed up and started breaking into cars! I couldn't get into one, as even with the keys the chirping of the alarm would alert the thieves to my presence. I was able to find a place to hide as the thieves took a car, and then took a small electric go-cart type thing to escape myself.

I came back later, and met a group of resistance fighters who lived on the top levels of the island's underground area. It was more like a hand-dug basement than the parking garage below, and they were scavenging parts from the cars below to fund their war on the surface dwellers. I joined them as a reluctant volunteer - they wouldn't let me leave alive if I hadn't. I became friends with group, which was felt more like a family. There were only 3 of them, a crazy leader, and a young girl and boy who followed him because they had nothing else. While scavenging the cars, I found some awesome Yu-Gi-Oh cards and added them to my collection. I returned to the surface to sell them, and also return some cans for the cause.

When I came back, it was as a spy. I tried my best to talk the leader out of his war on the surface world. I led him to the top of the island, to the small desert plain I'd lived as a child. I showed him the remnants of my home - the walls had long since eroded, but surrounding our old fire pit there were two stone chairs and a thick wooden table (suspended somehow on only two stout legs on one side). While up there, I explained that he could live on this island in peace, away from the surface dwellers he hated so much. He could build a windmill to power car batteries from the garage, and live off the energy generated by the fierce wind. But when he realized I'd been a spy and was trying to talk him out of his mission, he ran down into the garage levels.

The leader was insane with rage, and started taking gas cans and pouring them everywhere. Before I could stop him, he lit the gasoline and started a huge fire. I ran up to the underground levels, where the crude living quarters were, and tried to get the young girl and boy to safety. It was too late! We braced ourselves against the doorway as the floating island came crashing to the ground!

When we came to, the floating island had landed roughly a half-mile out into the ocean. I led the young girl and boy, and the humbled leader, to the surface of the island, where we could see the beauty of the surface world. Their were fish in the ocean, so many that the three could live their whole lives here without depending on those they hated. I stayed and became their new leader, claiming the island as my birthright (my parents had never wold the island, they'd just moved away because it had become too unstable.)

NO MORE HEROES: Brand New World

More than a year has passed since the Avengers foiled the alien invasion attempt in New York. In that time, many others have stepped forth to become defenders of humanity - groups like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, and individuals like Daredevil and Spider-Man. Others like Blade and Ghost Rider lurked in the shadows, mysteries to the world. Together or alone they fought the evils that plague our world - super powered menaces, mutant terrorists, murderous gang leaders. We came to rely on Superheroes to protect us. Until the day they disappeared.

Iron Man was towing a wrecked oil tanker when it happened. Witnesses saw a strange purple light flash over him and then, poof! Iron man was gone, the oil tanker sinking to the depths. The same happened to Spider-Man, all that's left of him are videos of webs left whipping in the wind. Millions of eyewitness accounts described the same phenomenon - a purple flash of light, and then nothing. At the exact same moment, all around the world, the super powered beings we knew vanished.

That day saw our greatest villains taken the same way. Magneto was giving a speech from a captured television station. Victor Von Doom vanished from his castle in Latveria. A super-villain prison referred to as the Raft was emptied, as all the inmated disappeared in the same flash of purple light. In an instant, we were robbed of our greatest hopes and fears.

That was two weeks ago.

The rioting and insanity that followed the heroes wake is subsiding. Planet Earth is regaining its senses. But will this brand new world be safer? Will it make more sense? Or, having lived with gods and monsters among us, is it too late to go back?

 

Basically what I'm thinking is that players would create new street-level heroes who don costumes to fill the void left by the vanished superheroes. Only heroes who'd shown themselves prior to the event were taken, so someone who didn't use their powers in public before the event would still be around. They'd fight normal crime, which has skyrocketed since the heroes went away, and new villains who see the same opportunity.

I didn't explicitly state it in the blurb, but this game would be set in a version of the movieverse where all the Marvel movies happened. The Avengers and it's prequels plus the FF, X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and Blade movies. Let me know if there's any I forgot! This way we can tie in to lots of marvel heroes but the game should be much more accessible. A timeline for the universe might be a little tough since most of these movies weren't made with considerations for the others. For that reason, I figure I won't bother unless it becomes necessary.

C&C Session 2 at Guardian

Just finished session #2 over at Guardian Games! This week, Dan was able to come, and rolled up a mysterious Druid. So mysterious, he's never even mentioned his name - he just threw in with the party as they set off to track the bandit Gritznak and his band of goblins. The 10 of them (Czarh the Halfling Rogue played by Matt, Bozniak the Human Knight played by Jon, the mysterious Human Druid played by Dan, the six militia men, and Klint the Leper) set off to follow the Gnoll and his wagon load of ill-gotten gains. The elder of the town, Eryl of Hoskin, had secretly put a hole in one bag of grain, so there would be a trail for the party to follow.

The party tracked the Bandit north along the Dunderry river to a stone bridge where the wagon crossed. Spotting the grain trail, Gritznak collapsed the stone bridge and forced the party to backtrack half a day's journey. After fording the river and setting up camp, they spot a strange blue glow on the horizon. The next day, they follow it to the northeast, choosing to follow it instead of the tracks that Gritznak's warband had left coming into town.

Along the way, the party was beset by mischievous pixies, engulfed in magical darkness, and warned by a gigantic ghostly serpent, among other things. Despite each of these trials, the party continued on, and came upon a ruined tower of white stone, with a majestic Lammasu standing guard. The Lammasu proved to be friendly, and guarded them while they slept for the night. The gnoll bandit and his goblins were not here. Czarh was able to read a bit of inscription along the inside of the ruined tower. "When all the Towers of Hithel are located, the way to the Tree of Life will be made clear." According to the Lammasu, though, All other Towers of Hithel were destroyed.

In the morning, the party continued northwest through the hilly terrain, catching glimpses of a black tower in the distance. Horns rose like a crown from the top of the tower. When they crested the final hill towards the tower, however, they came upon only a pile of wreckage. Outside, they found the cart of the village, empty, and signs of the horse being butchered. The blood trail led into a hole in the wreckage, an entrance into a subterranean lair.

Slinking down a set of stairs, Czarh found a group of four goblins, who the party easily dispatched by luring them out with cattle calls. Instead of an easy meal, the goblins found an ambush! The last goblin was tortured for info and revealed the demon statue inside was a magical alarm. It could only be disabled by a blood. Each member of the party let a drop into the bowl, which boiled and smoked, but the party was able to pass with no ill effects.

The party then went, room by room, through the gnoll's lair. They passed through a store room and several winding passages, avoiding a sagging floor which looked like it might crumble if passed over. They found a stable room where six riding wolves were kept, and a gnoll stablemaster kept coming in to quiet the barking animals. Czarh hid beside one of the stables and when the stablemaster turned to see what the wolf was barking about, BAM! Backstabbed! The stablemasters four goblin servants burst in, but were quickly dispatched by a swarm of heroes and militia men.

This is where we stopped off for the night. This week we won't be meeting up because of Gamestorm! (though I've been too sick to go the first two days)

Briarus - NPC Creation exercise

So I just read an excellent article at http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/eight-lifeboats/. One of the bits was about coming up with NPCs on the fly. So I decided to come up with a random guy starting with 3d6 in order stats. It's easier to come up with someone interesting if you've got a hole to fill - the random parts might not fit perfectly, and you have to discover why. But I didn't have anything in mind when I created...

Briarus, priest of St Bermain

Str 11
Dex 11
Con 7
Int 11
Wis 12
Cha 9

Briarus has trained all his life at the temple of St. Bermain, Andolan god of agriculture and defense of the home. Briarus dreams of one day becoming a Shepherd, one of the wandering warrior-apostles of St. Bermain, though he knows deep inside he doesn't have what it takes. He's been living in the farming community of Tallos for several years now as part of his training.

He uses his prayers to grant wellness and prosperity to the villagers, though he's never really become part of their lives. At the yearly Harvest Competition, Briarus witnesses young boys lift tree trunks and hurl stones that he couldn't budge. The first year he lived in Tallos, he actually joined the Grand Race. Little did he know that the race had no rules, and he was knocked unconscious in the first leg. Since then, he's waited on the sidelines to apply St. Bermain's blessing of healing on those wounded in the games.

Briarus has a meek and shy personality, with a slightly english accent out of place between the farmers' crude tongues. Though he's had little life experience during his years at the temple, he can often find a bit of wisdom from the teachings of St. Bermain to apply to the situation. He's never without his trusty staff, if only to lean on when the fierce autumn winds rush through the valley.

Briarus' life has recently taken a turn when a beautiful healer named Deidre moved in from a nearby town. She uses herbs and powders to heal the villagers where Briarus must call upon his god. Filled with respect for her craft, Briarus is also driven towards her beauty and generosity. Unknown to him, Deidre sees through Briarus' awkward exterior to a soft-hearted and caring man underneath, and is waiting for him to overcome his nervousness and make the first move.

(If I were to use him as an NPC, I'd totally have Deidre kidnapped so he could go along with the PCs and try to help rescue her. But the more I write about him, the more I want to play him as a PC!)

High-Low

Got distracted this morning looking at dice games and I found one that would be really simple to include in an RPG. High-Low is a very simple game, but I hacked up a version that could be played by a table of players (in game or IRL). Everyone places a bet in center of the table and then holds their open hand on the tabletop; palm up for High, palm down for Low. Then the shooter rolls the dice.

If the results are between 2 and 6, all players with palms down (Low) split the pot.
If the results are between 8 and 12, all players with palms up (High) split the pot.
If the result is 7, the shooter takes the pot.
If the result is doubles, winners are determined by whether the roll was high or low as above. Then, the shooter must pay out seven coins to each winner.

The shooter rotates every three throws, to keep things fair.  A person may stay in the game but abstain from betting in a round by making a closed fist. Typically, bets are low, to encourage speedy play and simplify splitting the pot.

I want to introduce this game by having an NPC teach it to the PCs. Commoners would use copper coins, soldiers would use silver, and merchants might use gold coins. I imagine more complicated games might be in use by the nobility.