Freedom City: Thoughts Around the Campaign(s)

I ran another session of Time of Crisis over the weekend and it's a blast - but more on that later!

 In the aftermath I've been looking around at my notes and character sheets and past blog entries for the various M&M campaigns and realized things are kind of scattered. The tag over there on the right side of the screen is for "Freedom City 2000" which was one of my early ideas for a Freedom City campaign but isn't terribly relevant to what I am doing now. Over on the left I've noted it as Freedom City: Year One which is more relevant as it is what I am trying to do but even then it's not entirely correct. To me, what I've been doing the past five years or so with one or two games a year and what I'm doing right now are really all more of a prologue, a prelude to a regular, ongoing, city-based modern superhero campaign. That said, you take what you can get. I'm really trying to get it organized in my head as much as anything as what's done is done and what's being done is being done and what we will do is not really a thing yet. It's very much like the comic book universes we all know so I can at least take some comfort in that.

None of this matters to my players of course - they show up, we have a good time, and we schedule the next session. We get some "old warhorse" stories but not nearly as many as say D&D because we haven't played as much supers in comparison. They don't care so much who was or wasn't here for a particular session or that Captain So and So's powers changed between Session #1 and Session #3 because they're playing it, not reading it or watching it. Noting it (at least) and explaining it (hopefully) matters to me because I am trying to create a connected universe, hopefully something that wows them months or years from now with a callback to something that happened in one of these early sessions.

So here's where I am - I need to think more carefully about these kinds of things and keep it a little more organized. So ...

• Freedom City: Prelude is what I am running now and is what all of my old FC2K stuff falls into. I was hoping that it would neatly fall into a system category too and that Freedom City for M&M 3E would be out by now but it's just taken too long for that. Of course now that I have actually started a regular game I'm sure they will get it out the door this year. You're all welcome! The original concept is described here.
  
  The idea is that this is all in the past and covers all of the old 1E/2E history and events, culminating in the Time of Crisis! ToC is the Great Retcon  - when it's over I'm probably going to let my players rebuild their characters completely and put them at PL11. I'm also toying with the idea of changing up the timeline and the history. This is partly to emphasize the elements I want to use in the campaign and partly to put our own spin on it. The original 2E (and forthcoming 3E) timelines would be one version of history while this new one would be ours. This helps me put the PC's at the center of things. It also has the benefit of giving me an easy "alternate history" to jump to when needed, one where the PC's are not the driving factor, one where they might not even exist as heroes at all!
  
  I'm also thinking about calling it "Year Zero" then once we finish ToC going to "Year One". Not super original I know but it does make it easy to follow, keeps the actual year generic, and lets me insert Big Events as a mini-campaign without getting too specific on the timing. I see stuff like the robots, Spatula City, and the bridge adventure and the others as leading up to ToC and the big reset. Sketching out 10-12 events at first for each season and letting the characters drive more and more as the game goes on should be enough for the traditional 12 "issues".  The whole year Zero thing also covers us learning how the game works to a much greater degree, much like the characters are learning their whole thing. I like that parallel.
  
  Feel/Tone/Thing that makes it different: This is the high four-color superhero campaign. Most of it is in the city, some around the world, a little bit in space. Mutants, aliens, robots, altered humans and every type of hero rub elbows in Freedom City. It's Marvel New York. It's the "everything" campaign, the "anything is possible" campaign. It's also the "anyone can join" campaign and the "sure you can roll up another hero" campaign. This is the Avengers or Justice League campaign.

• Emerald City: Same universe, same continent, different feel. At one time I was trying to slide this over to the DC universe and considering how little we have played it that might still happen. The idea here though is that EC is not over-populated with heroes or villains and the player characters are the only heavy-ish hitters in town. It's more structured and less free-for all. The idea is that each player would really only have one hero in this game and they would be more tied in to the local people and organizations. I would be aiming for a more intimate feel. This campaign would be more like the X-Men, but instead of "mutants" as the unifying element "Emerald City" itself would be the unifying element. I don't know how well I could pull it off but I think it might be an interesting change from the main campaign. Turning EC into another FC kind of eliminates the need for a separate city anyway - it needs to feel different and not just be a different set of names doing the same things. 

• Atomic City: Completely different universe - this one is totally my homebrew creation. When FC feels to restrictive, too much like "other people's characters", this is where we go. I see it as a Bronze Age four-color game as well but with a totally different cast of characters and no connection to the M&M setting. There will be a heavy dose of Champions lore in it, particularly old 2nd-3rd-4th edition lore. Not the "Universe" stuff but the villains and maybe even some of the heroes and organizations that some of us loved from that game. If I ever run Champions again it would probably be set here, but M&M is still the mechanics set of choice here for now. Except for the Animated Series, which is still ICONS. Want to team up with Marksman, Seeker, and Minuteman? This is probably where that happens.
  
  I could see this running with a different group or on a different night or just as an occasional one-shot here and there. Maybe I run it for the Apprentices or for one set of friends in between the FC sessions.  Maybe we come up with a plot that needs to be resolved and run a special 4-issue limited series here.
  
  Really this one is "home" - take everything I like about comics/movies/animated stuff, mix it in with what I have liked about other super games and super game settings, add in stuff I have come up with over the years that I like and this is what you get.

Of course this also sets up the ultimate fun scenario - crossovers! We've already pretty much established that the DC comic and TV universes also exist in this cosmos  - see the recaps for those details - and I expect Marvel to follow soon. Why not let the players establish this kind of thing, especially this early in the campaign? It pays off now and it will pay off down the road too. 

...and no, I do not have the time to run all of these on a regular basis. Keeping one of them on track for once a month, and working in the others a few times a year is probably as much as I can hope for right now. I'm OK with that though, as that's still a ton of fun.

The Big Game: Time of Crisis Session 2

Against all recent precedent I managed to run a second session of a superhero adventure/campaign and almost everyone showed up again! The Big Game I talked about previously has now completed session 2 and is about a third of the way through.

Our Heroes:

• US Patriot - super-strong, super-tough, flying symbol of patriotism
  (known hero in Freedom City, played by Paladin Steve)
• The Descendant - heir to an ancient legacy tied to artifacts of elemental power
  (new hero, played by Apprentice Red)
• Dark Justice - lurking, menacing, bringing justice to the streets - a dark justice
  (known hero in Freedom City, played by Variable Dave) Dark J is only slightly in this episode as Dave couldn't make it this time.
• Heavy Metal - builder and wearer of a hi-tech armored battlesuit to defend the defenseless and make a difference in the world
  (new hero, played by Apprentice Blaster)
• Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, aka The Flash - yep, that guy. This whole flashpoint thing is way out of control
  (This is TV show Barry Allen, down-powered, and more is explained in the original post linked above. Played by College Guy Alex)
• Blank, a brand new hero and a brand new character played by a new player who has never done a superhero RPG before, College Guy Shawn.

So I ended up losing one player but gaining one so the numbers were the same. This session ran 5-6 hours depending on how you want to count it as our actual start times tend to be somewhat later than arrival times and our departure times are often significantly later than the last die roll.

Last session ended with our heroes discussing things with the local resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Freedom City. The cosmic bomb sought by our heroes was probably the same thing as the new superweapon the occupiers had recently discovered and brought to a high technology lab at their base in Freedom City. The resistance could smuggle the heroes on to the site but could not offer much help once inside. This was fine with the heroes. They began to prepare for the journey. Dark Justice realizes that a diversion in the city would help make the infiltration easier. He volunteers to stir things up in the streets of Freedom City, much like he does back home.

Lilith, an agent of the resistance who had first encountered the team in the outer barrens of the city brought a ten year old boy forward. "His name is Blank, because he doesn't remember much of anything. We rescued him from a secret lab. He has some interesting ... abilities. He wants to go with you." 

Patriot laughed - "you want us to take a ten year old into a secret Nazi base? Where there's a universe-destroying bomb?"

Blank responded with "I can help you" and proceeded to demonstrate his power. Once Barry recovered, the team grew quiet and agreed to bring him along.

Packed into a shipping container the heroes from another dimension made their covert voyage on to the base. Along the way they picked up sights and sounds and signals of the terrible conditions in this not-so-free Freedom City. Several of them vowed to make things right.

Eventually the container stopped moving. Cautiously they emerged - into a huge round chamber with multiple levels of catwalks, huge blast doors, and concentrations of advanced technology. The focus of the entire room was a huge crimson orb, thrumming with power as waves of energy crackled across its surface. A classic Mark 1 Nazi Scientist emerged form behind a bank of machinery and gave Classic Nazi Villain Speech A, basically "we know who you are, we know why you are here, and we are so confident in our supremacy that we brought you here, right where you wanted to go, anyway because there's no way you can win." As he does this, a 5-man team of Nazi Superheroes (villains?) drops into place beside him, one by one, until he closes the speech the only way he can - "Gett Zemm!" and the fightin' commences.

The teams square off as the Cosmic Energy Device looms over all ...

Now I won't break it down punch by punch but in classic superhero fashion it goes like this:

• Paragon of American values, red, white, blue and star-spangled tights and cape-wearing U.S. Patriot slugs it out with paragon of Nazi ideals, black tights red cape swastika-on-his-chest Ubermensch
• Armored up Heavy Metal goes straight for blazing white flame-aura'd, sword-symbol-ed White Knight
• Magical Master of the Elements The Descendant moves in on the greenish, translucent, creepy Der Geist
• The fastest man alive zips over to ... a guy wearing a fairly normal looking coverall type worksuit - perhaps a worker standing in the wrong place?
• Blank hides behind a crate. This leave Der Eule, stealthy nightbird-themed defender of the Fatherland as a free agent.

The very first thing that happens is that Flash zips over to "normal looking guy" and in a blur punches him a whole bunch. The fact that this merely dazes him should tell you that this is not a normal guy. As the others engage Blank runs to a crate very near this Flash-Guy confrontation. He has "hide in plain sight" as an ability and so is effectively invisible at this point. So nobody notices or cares.

After the Flash-punch "normal guy" can only take one action and it's a doozy - he raises his now green-glowing hands, claps them together, and a blast of green energy erupts from him and hits nearly everyone in the room. Despite the chamber being 150 feet across most of the combatants are engaged in a very small area. Several of our heroes are noticeably injured by the blast from the feared Nazi super "Gotterdammerung" - basically a normal guy except that anything he touches explodes. Oh, and he was a pretty loyal Nazi believer. Also, due to his awesome combat power his personal life sucks as he cannot touch anyone, or anything, really, with his bare skin. He's a troubled man after living this way for years as he's really only good for being a weapon.

Now I share the backstory of this particular villain as what happens next is one of those unplanned one-in-a-million coincidences that makes some sessions live forever in our own gaming history. Blank is nearby when the Guy makes his explosion but manages to survive. Terrified, as a ten year old kid in the middle of an interdimensional super-battle should be he lashes out with his main power:

Nullify

So Blank turns off Gotterdammerung's always-on-make-anything-he-touches explode power.

Gotterdammerung falls to his knees, staring at his hands, in shock.

The rest of the battle continues around them as Blank maintains GD's "off" status.

Patriot and Ubermensch pound away without a lot of progress until Blank decides he can keep GD down and still do something else to help and ... turns off Uber's Protection power. Right before Patriot lands a full-strength critical punch. Now there's a visible effect happening to Uber here but Patriot has no idea what it is and so no reason to hold back as this guy's been taking his best swings with little impact so far. In this case, the punch does a devastating amount of damage and has about 150' of knockback. The nearest solid object is only 50' away - the cosmic bomb. Uber flies back into it, there is a blinding flash, and when it fades there is no sign of Ubermensch at all. 

Heavy Metal goes a few rounds with White Knight giving better than he's getting until he takes a mighty, mighty swing (power attack) and lands a critical hit. This sends Knight into the opposite wall and he leaves an inch-deep impression of a human form in the concrete before he slides down to the floor.

Descendant's magical artifact happens to have one form which is made to fight spirits. This is most unfortunate for Geist who is shocked the first time this interloper hurts him. It's even more unfortunate a few rounds later when, after switching dance partners a few times, The Descendant pops up behind him ("look I can fly too") and cuts him in half with the mightiest blow he has ever landed!

Flash, once his initial opponent takes a seat, dashes around helping here and there until he sees an opening and runs around the inside of the domed chamber, building up speed, then launches himself from the ceiling at Der Eule in a devastating move-through attack. The red, lightning-lit blur streaks down to the ground then disappears, leaving The Flash standing there unharmed and the Owl laid out unconscious on the concrete.

Through all of this Gotterdammerung is a total non-combatant. He sobs uncontrollably for a bit, then notices Lilith crouched behind some equipment. He walks over to her, falls to his knees, and begs to touch her face while his curse is lifted. Yes, there is a back story here. As the villains fall, our heroes gather around this scene and attempt to figure out what's going on. Lilith notes that he has killed thousands and pulls out a pistol and shoots him in the head - or she would have if Flash hadn't grabbed the gun out of her hand. She continues unfazed that "he wants to die" and whips out another pistol but Flash grabs that one too - "I can do this all day". Frustrated, she turns to the man on his knees and says "don't you"?

"Yes, yes, why do you keep stopping her?" he sobs.

This prompts a long totally appropriate intraparty discussion about what they should do. No one really thinks it's right to just kill him themselves, and they aren't thrilled about letting her do it either but a) "turning him over to the authorities for due process" isn't really an option because the authorities here are Nazis! b) he is a Nazi supervillian who has killed thousands and c) he wants to die.

This is one of the high points of my Super-GM career. There's not a scripted right answer here. This is totally up to the characters and the players.

It gets even better as Patriot finally hits on a solution. "Do you want to die a hero?"

The heroes know they need to disarm the bomb. They explain the purpose and the power of the cosmic device. Metal analyzes the technology of the thing and figures out the best place for GD to touch it. He is pretty sure that they will both destroy each other without a gigantic explosion - at least that's what he tells the others. They start to debate how far away they should be when they realize it's either going to cancel out GD and hopefully disappear like Uber did or, he's going to set the thing off and destroy the universe in which case there's not enough distance available to be "safe".

Gotterdammerung stands, looks at Lilith. She looks away. He looks down, then steps away from everyone and nods to Blank. He begins to glow again shortly thereafter. The most hated and yet in some ways most admired man in the room walks over to the universe-destroying bomb and places his hands on it. There is a rapid series of flashes, some strange noises, then both are gone, leaving only a crystal rod lying on the ground. Metal notes that it's an important part of the detonation system if his analysis is correct. Flash picks it up and then the universe fades around them. 

They see Lilith moving towards them "No wait ..." 

They are back on the asteroid, standing before the great face of the Norn in the place without time.

They are whole again. Blank is with them. Dark Justice is not. 

"That was an excellent performance" says the voice of the Norn. "Are you ready to deal with the second device?" 

They are.

The rock fades from view and they find themselves in a shining, sunlit city. The three towers of Freedom Plaza rise in the distance, the stars and stripes flying in the breeze atop the center skyscraper. This looks like home! They walk out into a main street. They see a police officer. 

"Officer can you help us -"

The officer turns around. It's a gorilla. In full police uniform. Speaking perfect English he stammers out "Wha-what are you?!" as he reaches for his sidearm.

Even better than the first session, this one will stay with me for a long time. Blank was a totally new character run by a new player. He just happened to end up with GD as the villain closest to where he was hiding. He just happened to "nullify" the only person in the room who wanted to be rid of his powers!`A totally unexpected development that completely changed the fight, the tone of the session, and the finale. It was amazing! I did not strictly follow the rules with some of this stuff at the end. When something awesome happens you go with it! It made for a dramatic and ridiculously comic-book-appropriate ending.

All of my players dove into the genre full-force. There were snappy comebacks, witty challenges, puns galore, and it was just a ton of fun. This adventure is one big homage to the big crossover events/team up specials and the author (a regular guest on the BAMF podcast) proudly admits it. The cliches are supposed to be engaged as you're playing it this time, not just reading it. My guys all get it, even the ones who aren't traditional comic book fans have seen enough movies and cartoons to get it. They range in age from 17 to 40-something and they all get it and they all work together to make it better. It's a different mix from my other games as this was Flash's second time to play and Blank's first. It went really well and everyone is pumped for the third session. 

Fun stuff: Barry Allen's need to reveal his secret identity has basically turned it into a greeting at this point. One hand reaches out to shake, the other pulls back the mask as he introduces himself with "Hi I'm Barry Allen, the Fastest Man Alive and I am ... The Flash!

More fun stuff: Blank grows up to become Agent K of Men in Black. The neuralyzer is just a prop, he's really using his "memory wipe" power.

Bonus Example of Fun: As the teams line up and the Nazi scientist makes his speech Patriot clenches his jaw and responds with a tirade about America and beating Nazi's. At the table a joke is made about a tear rolling down his face as Heavy Metal flips on a loudspeaker playing the Star Spangled Banner and inside, Patriot realizes he's going to get to beat up Nazi's while the national anthem is being played at 80 decibels behind him.

Next session is this Friday. As a guy who's waited a decade to run this adventure with "the right group" I could not be any happier with how it's gone so far. 

M&M: The Big Game

So I started what I hope will be the "ultimate game" the day after Thanksgiving. I ended up with 5 players - two of my regulars, two of my Apprentices, and a friend of Apprentice Red's. We ran for about 8 hours which is a good long session for us. It was not quite as productive as I had hoped so we came nowhere close to finishing the adventure but it was a good start. People ran late, people had to finish making characters, we had to make some introductions of those characters, and we had to have a quick run-through of the rules but I didn't mind - those are all part of kicking off a new campaign.

So what did we play? Time of Crisis! Originally written for 1E M&M, updated for 2E in the GM screen for that edition, and updated to 3E by ... me. There are almost zero published adventures for superhero games that I think are worth running (except for ICONS!) but ToC is one of them. It's very much an "event" type adventure and I have wanted to run it for a group that would appreciate it for years. Being somewhat heavily structured, it's good for a new group too as they can focus on accomplishing a series of tasks to SAVE THE UNIVERSE under circumstances that mean even heroes who might not get along normally have a reason to work together.

I'm not going to get into all of the details as we only got through part of the adventure. The short version is that after Omega finally manages to shatter the cosmos a random group of heroes is rescued by a powerful entity and sent on a series of "missions" to undo the damage and save reality. Each of these takes place on an alternate universe and the first one is one where Nazi's won WW2. Right away the heroes are getting to punch Nazis and throw tanks at airplanes in a much-worse-off version of Freedom City. There is more fun to be had in subsequent parts but that's as far as we made it this time. The players were all pretty excited during the game and liked what they saw so things are looking really positive.

Our Heroes:

• US Patriot - super-strong, super-tough, flying symbol of patriotism
  (known hero in Freedom City)
• The Descendant - heir to an ancient legacy tied to artifacts of elemental power
  (new hero)
• Dark Justice - lurking, menacing, bringing justice to the streets - dark justice
  (known hero is Freedom City)
• Heavy Metal - builder and wearer of a hi-tech armored battlesuit to defend the defenseless and make a difference in the world
  (new hero)
• Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, aka The Flash - yep, that guy. This whole flashpoint thing is way out of control
  (errr...)

(Red's friend really likes Flash, especially the show, and wanted to play him. With the DC Adventures books as a reference how could I say no? It's not like Barry isn't getting into this kind of thing all the time anyway. We down-powered him to PL10 and went with it.)

The only downer was that schedules were not compatible for December, smashing my hopes of wrapping it up this month. January 2nd we gather again to hopefully resolve the Crisis. It's a big gap but I'm going to try and work in an M&M game during the holiday break with a different set of heroes to keep it somewhat fresh for most of the players.

So, the game is started. For 2017 I have decided to run an ongoing M&M game monthly. That will be the Freedom City game taking off from this kickoff adventure. I have 12 adventure ideas sketched out and will run one of them each month for whoever can make it. Other sessions will use FC or work in Emerald City or Atomic City depending on who's playing and what makes sense. I'll talk about how its going and what is or isn't working here.

Crisis With Too Many Settings

I'm having a bit of a crisis now with the Big Friday Game. I had an adventure in mind which a) I love b ) feel is appropriately epic for a special get-together and c) has a lot of ties to the Freedom City setting. All set, right?

Well I was - then I started looking through my campaign binders. I have one for Freedom City (M&M 2E). I have one for Atomic City (M&M 3E), Then I have the Emerald City book (also 3E). I have a lot of good stuff sketched out. Almost all for 3E.

I want to run the big adventure, but it's written for 2E. I have a big bunch of stuff for 2E, much of it tied to Freedom City. I don't really want to convert it all. But I really like 3E. I don't want to move it to Emerald City either.

I also really like my home-grown setting. I could use it instead but I don't want to tie it to the Freedom-verse.  I want it to be completely free. It will have a fair number of Champions nods, and maybe some M&M bits too, but I don't want it to be one more city in the Freedom City setting.

If I am looking at this as a kickoff for a new campaign, and I want that campaign to be in my own city, do I want to weigh it down with 2E? If I don't want it tied to Freedom City it's probably better to not even run this adventure and use one of my own ideas instead.

So yes I'm spinning through this little dilemma right now.

If I run this with FC now it's not really a "kickoff" and it doesn't really help me run AC later. If I run FC as the ongoing campaign, I'm limiting my chances of running AC in the near future. If I run it in 2E it's less work (no translation) and it's easier for new players coming over from Pathfinder to get. I just like 3E better for a lot of things.

Of course Freedom City 3rd Edition is in the works. I expect we will see it in the next few months but that doesn't help me run a week from now. If I'm going to run it in the future as a say once a month open-table type game then a well-known setting would make it easier for players to connect their characters to the setting. But a setting of my own design would be easier for me to run.

In a week I will have it figured out and ready to go. This is typical for me early-stage campaign overthinking while climbing up the "how do I want to do this" hill. Once I get over the top it will come together easily. I just have to get to that point.

Mutants and Masterminds - Freedom City Year One: Battle on the Bridge!

The infamous Doctor Zero returns!

(actually it's his first appearance in my campaign - but he's been written into history!)

I recently ran a two-session episode in my very occasional Freedom City campaign using Mutants and Masterminds (second edition). I am hoping this leads into more frequent dips into this pool but only time will tell.

The setting: Freedom City, early 21st century. I am not setting a specific date on these as a) it's a comic book campaign and b) I figure I will retcon them into some kind of coherent timeline later

The heroes:

• U.S. Patriot - a scientist who becomes a star-spangled super-man when needed
  (In M&M terms, a Paragon (Superman) type. Played by Paladin Steve)
• Emerald Blue Defender - an alien guardian who crashed literally minutes before the attack on the bridge. The crash seems to have disrupted his identity a bit as he gives several different names during the action
  (In M&M terms, a Ringbearer (Green Lantern). Played by Apprentice Blaster)
• Crimson Avenger - the mystic myrmidon dedicated to defending the earth
  (In M&M terms, a Mystic Battlesuit (Iron-Mannish). Played by Apprentice Who)

As our heroes go about their usual business - Patriot is at work, Avenger is at school, and Defender is spiraling out of control through the atmosphere - a report comes in about some kind of trouble on the Centery Bridge. A traffic copter report provides audio and video of the scene as strange insect-like mechanical forms swarm over the bridge and the vehicles crossing it. Overseeing it all, a huge tripod vehicle stalks across the structure and rants on about how Doctor Zero will finally have his revenge! Seeing this, the heroes swing into action!

As they arrive on the scene, Defender and the Crimson Avenger land on the bridge and begin slicing up, TK-tossing, and blasting the car-sized insectoid robots. Patriot, sensing the root of the problem, swooops down and lifts the walker into the air. Over the next few minutes Defender saves some encircled cops and rescues an injured driver while Avenger saves a minivan full of kids. In between, both of them smash multiple bug bots but are barely making a dent in the overall situation. Patriot takes the full force of Doctor Zero's wrath as he is blasted by various beams and rays emanating from the control pod of the walker. 

While this is going on all three heroes realize the bots are not just randomly tearing up the bridge but they are breaking down the vehicles and even parts of the bridge itself and constructing more bots! This problem could quickly scale out of control and threaten the entire city if it's not contained!

After managing to slow down Patriot with one of his many beams, Zero ejects the pod from the rest of the tripod and rocket-boosts down towards the bay, hoping to escape. The mighty chemist shakes it off and re-engages, grabbing the spherical pod tight enough to leave handprints in its shell. Then with a grunt he steers the pod up and over and slams it down onto the bridge. The material is too tough to smash outright but the Doctor is going nowhere now.

The heroes realize that tackling the bugs directly is a losing proposition. They team up to crack open the shell of the walker control pod but as Patriot peels back the canopy Zero lets loose with a maniacal laugh as he presses a button on his wristband. The bugs stop moving and begin emitting strange noises that mere into a slowly building tone ... almost like an alarm. 

“Now you will see the price of opposing me! That self-destruct signal will cause the power cores in my Bugbots to overload until they explode! In moments, this bridge will burn as a fiery monument to my genius, a pyre to light the very heavens! And there’s nothing you can do to stop it! The world will remember the name Dr Zero! Farewell ‘heroes!’”

Now concerned for far more than medium-scale property damage the heroes come up with a plan. Crimson Avenger uses his magical powers of thought-movement to sweep the bots into a pile as defender assists and then encloses them in a giant blue energy sphere. Patriot hoists the whole thing up over his head and lifts off. Avenger assists him, arms extended and trembling with power as Defender flies alongside to maintain containment. Their best guess is that they need to be 3 miles up (to prevent blast damage to the civilians, the bridge, and the city) and over the bay (to prevent damage from falling debris) and they only have seconds to do it. 

Three forms streak into the morning sky beneath a huge, glowing sphere, then are eclipsed as a massive explosion. A last-second "heave" by all three heroes tosses the bubble far enough that no one is harmed by the blast, not even themselves. Some bot-parts do rain down into the bay but boat traffic is light and no bystanders are harmed. In the confusion, Doctor Zero has disappeared. 

The three heroes return to the bridge to help the police get traffic moving again and to see to any damaged cars or injured civilians. Defender and Patriot find that they work well with the police but Avenger is less friendly and not sure that he wants to get too close to the authorities.

Today is a good day though. The city is saved, people are grateful, and their work here is done. As they depart, all three agree to meet again and set up some form of communication in case they need to act as a team once more.

DM notes: I used "Battle on the Bay Bridge" from Lame Mage Productions for this as I think it's a great introductory adventure. DTRPG link is here, though I don't see this adventure in the mix or on his site. There's probably not a ton of demand for M&M 2E adventures these days but I have been waiting years to run it and I am very happy that  I finally had a chance to do so. 

First question: "How much does a bug bot weigh?" This of course is not included in the stats, despite this being a nicely written and noted little gem. I know how much cars weigh, and the bots are car-sized, so I went with a number that made sense to me. Second question: "How much does the walker weight." Sigh - this is totally not car-sized so I actually had to look up size and weight rules for M&M and after that it all worked out. Note to self: Super-strength guys and Telekinesis guys are always going to want to pick stuff up and fling it about so remember to note down weight in advance where possible.

I was pretty proud of them for coming up with a solid solution to the problem so quickly. Playing videogames or even the same RPG or boardgame all the time can channel one's thinking. A good superhero session encourages wide-open thinking about how to solve problems.

Everyone had a pretty good time and some of the characters have been used in prior M&M one-offs so we are developing a little bit of a history here. Ideally this will be the gradual coming-together of a team of superheroes who will take over protecting Freedom City from the current Freedom League as they move into dealing with more global threats.  

I also finally managed to figure out how to run vehicles and minions in Hero Lab too which made the numbers much easier to keep track of in play. 

Overall it was a big win and we're hoping to work in more sessions in the future. Time is clearly the ultimate arch-nemesis of most of us grown-up gamers.

Freedom City: Year One

The concept is to follow a number of new heroes during their first year of being superheroes. This is not a new idea, but one difference here is that I would set it in Freedom City, which unlike most of the comic book stories of this type already has a well-established and well-known super team known as the Freedom League. This would give the new heroes something to play against - are they aspiring to membership? Do they see the league as allies or competition? They are not the first heroes, nor are they the most powerful, at least at first. Then there is the opposite question ; how does the league see them? I don't normally like to play up an NPC group all that much when a campaign begins as it can make your players feel like they're playing the B or C team but I think I can make it work as a positive in this campaign. To set this interplay up one of the character creation rules would be that these new characters cannot have any defined relationship with the Freedom league or any of its members - we will develop that in play.

For players who don't want to play rookie heroes I came up with an option mostly inspired by Dark Knight Rises: you can play a hero coming out of retirement but it's been years, probably a lot of years, since he was active. This will take a little more background work to weave in but there is a lot to work with in Freedom City so I don't think it will be a problem. In this case the character may once have been a member of the league but resigned and has not been in contact with them for years.I'm also going to need some creative use of Disads/Complications/Limitations to reflect this whole state of affairs. I'm thinking something like Deadlands "Veteran o' the Weird West" where you get extra advancements but have to draw a card which tells the DM what interesting effects are lingering on from your greater experience.

Timeline-wise I have been thinking about moving things back and setting it right after Centurion dies (or right before) instead of 10-20 years later as in the book. He might be the reason some of the heroes do what they do, and regardless of the exact timing the chaotic aftermath of Omega's assault would be a good time for new heroes to appear. I like the idea of giving the players a chance to make some personal connection between their characters and the self-sacrificing Roman Superman of the setting - I mean, what's the point of having that in the background if you can't hook into it, right, and what better finale (or kickoff) than a dimensional invasion and a big sacrifice? It's there, it seems like I should use it for something! That would also let me use the "history" in the book as an outline for events for a decade or so if I want to use them. Moving beyond Year One we could look at our runs as the "big events" of a year or so in the hero business (kind of like Pendragon) and advance the campaign calendar at whatever rate we choose using out-of-session talk to cover the in-between times. Comic books aren't all that linear or consistent when it comes to timelines so I'm trying to come up with a looser approach to that whole thing. I don't need a bunch of mechanics around this just something I can communicate to the players. In the end I may just go with the default timing of the 2E Freedom City book and give up trying to outsmart myself with this but at the moment it's still something I'm working through.

So nothing earth-shatteringly original but a little more structured than than the way I usually begin a campaign.  With some of the published adventures to kick things off, then detours through whatever personal agendas develop in play, and then a "Season 1 Finale" - perhaps using Time of Crisis if I go with the more standard timeline - I could arrange a decently satisfying run. By the time we run through all this there's a good chance we're into next year and there's a new 3E version of Freedom City out presumably with a timeline advance, and we could jump things forward a few if we felt like it or just play through and see where our version of the city goes.

FC2K B1: The Spatula City Massacre

Something was clearly afoot, thought the Knight of Justice, as he followed the unsuspecting ninja through the city. Why would a ninja be headed for ...

As other ninjas swarmed out of the darkness and entered the store his suspicions were confirmed - this was something big...

Our heroes:

• Knight of Justice (Costumed Adventurer) played by Dave, one of my regular grown up players*
• Stella the Mystic (Mystic) played by Lady Blacksteel
• Angel of Justice (Flying Mentalist) played by Apprentice Red
• U.S. Patriot (Paragon) played by Steve, another one of my regular grown up crew

The game is Mutants and Masterminds Second Edition. The setting is Freedom City. The reason is that I have a ton of stuff for M&M 2E in general and Freedom City in particular. So, rather than taking on another conversion job (see the two D&D 4E campaigns I'm running) I decided to run straight up second edition until I run out of material. 

Another new wrinkle here besides the system is that I'm running it with Hero Lab, using that for character construction and also using the tactical console to run things in play. The earlier experiment was a success so I'm adopting it for the whole campaign.

I've named this branch FC2K "B#" because this is a different group of players and characters that will be on a different track than the Apprentices most of the time, though I hope to work in some crossovers if the opportunity arises. The primarily-Apprentices branch is the A branch. Just trying to keep things organized from the start in the hopes that these turn into decade-long campaigns - hey, you never know!

Anyway, the original plan was to run one of the Dr. Null adventures from Lame Mage, which I really really like. We had some problems with character generation and printers and holiday stuff which meant that when we finally sat down to play I did not actually have the bad guys set up in Hero Lab which is kind of required to use the tac console. During the general cutting up while the DM frantically tried to type in data inspiration struck and I tossed that plan and went with a new, totally off-the-cuff adventure that was in no way influenced by having seen much of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie earlier in the day. 

Plan A - Discarded!

Our 4 heroes were drawn to Spatula City one December evening. The Knight was following a ninja encountered while he was on patrol. Stella was drawn by a magical surge that seemed to be inside the building. Angel was inside the store in his secret identity of someonewhosenameIcannotrecallandamnotevensureIwasgiven to buy his mom a spatula for Christmas. Patriot was flying overhead when he heard a commotion coming from the place (a bit later than the rest).

As a pair of ninjas took up a guard position outside the main entrance, Knight and Stella approached through the parking lot. Not really seeing each other, he threw smoke pellets to blind the ninjas while she threw a confusion spell to keep them busy. The knight then leaped over a parked car, boot-kicking one of them back into the wall (and aided by his night-vision goggles, one of several customizations to the standard equipment made by Dave).

Inside, ninjas began menacing several of the customers while the apparent leader, brandishing a sword and dressed all in red, interrogated the store manager. Nearby a very large (Growth 4) hulking brute that looked somewhat rhino-ish sneered at the pathetic human customers and employees.

The Brute totally did not look like this

As the manager is thrown to the ground amidst words like "disrespect" the Angel of Justice springs into action! He blasts the red menace who whirls on him, drawing steel! A running duel begins as Angel tries to stay up out of reach while using his telekinetic abilities against the surprisingly mobile (to Apprentice Red, anyway) leader of the ninja force and his thirsty steel blade.

The ninja leader totally did not look like this, either

In the sky overhead, U.S. Patriot notices smoke coming from the entrance of a nearby retail establishment and another caped figure rushing into it. He also hears the sound of a fight from inside so he smashes thru a window and flies inside, looking to punch the biggest, baddest thing in the room as it looms over the prone store manager. He delivers a solid punch, stunning the rhino-like creature, but not putting him down for the count as he was hoping to do.

At the store entrance ninjas rush to stop the cape-wearing crusader and the mystic mistress as they force their way inside, dispatching ninjas left and right. The Angel and the Red Ninja bounce all over the store, with the hero occasionally taking out a ninja instead of blasting the leader, who is difficult to hit..

Back at the Customer Service desk, the Rhino-thing hits Patriot hard enough to send him thru the wall of the store. Patriot flies back in, lands another solid one on the brute, and gets knocked back thru the wall by the followup punch. 

Name: U.S. Patriot

Signature Skill: Knocking people through walls 

As the rest of the ninjas fall to the Knight and the Lady, Angel and Patriot decide to change things up a bit, as Angel leads the Red Ninja back to the center of the store and sets him up for the Patriot. The red, white, and blue hero then connects with a blow that would have been plenty hurty to the 12' mutated rhino - but this time the target is the not-quite 6' ninja leader who had been having a pretty good day so far. This punches him up through the ceiling, out onto the parking lot, and into unconsciousness.

Now it was time to gang up on the rhino-guy and they did. Although at least one hero was laid out by the end, they did manage to bring down the big beast thru teamwork and persistence. 

Who were these guys? Why were they berating the manager of the local Spatula City? What was the magical disturbance sensed by Stella the Mystic? What happened to that red ninja guy Patriot punched through the ceiling? All good questions, and the answers will have to wait for the next session! 

DM Notes: Yes, this one was verging on the silly but once we got going it was a lot of fun. A dozen ninjas, a weapon master, and a hulking brute made for a fine fight against 4 new heroes. We mostly used the archetypes from the core book but Dave tweaked his adventurer somewhat ("why would I want to create darkness in a 30' radius that I can't see through?") and Red made up his own character based on an old character he had created previously. For the store I used a map from the "Final Days" miniatures game which finally proved useful after years on the shelf.

I felt like an idiot for not having the villainy already entered in the tool but that's part of the learning curve. I'm happy with the way it turned out regardless. Also: not a bank robbery, which is my traditional way of kicking off a supers campaign and which was specifically mentioned by Red - "please don't make it a a bank robbery" - mission accomplished.

We learned a bit more about the combat system and everyone picked it up fairly quickly. I'm getting more y proficient with the tool so things ran quickly enough once we got started. That color-coded damage chart on the inside of the DM screen is pretty handy. With a high toughness and a very high knockback modifier it was hard for anyone to hurt the Brute even the paragon, but they managed. He wasn't going to go flying nearly as far as the normal-sized ninja leader though. Knocking people through walls is just one of those signature super things and I'm happy to have it popping up already in this game.

I've told the players they can make changes to their characters over the next few sessions as we learn the game. It's probably going to be our backup game now - when we don't have enough available to play D&D then it's going to be an M&M night. I'm pretty happy about that.

FC2K A1: Giant Robot Attack!

Freedom City, circa 2000 AD: all is peaceful, then a siren goes off as a trio of giant robots lumbers into the city, stepping on cars, smashing buildings, and sending panicked mobs of citizens screaming in all directions!

Where is the Freedom League?

What, they're out of town?

Who will save the citizens of Freedom City?

Answer: Callisto the Gadgeteer and Mr. Krats, the Battlesuited Golden Knight!

These heroes will not be appearing in this recap

I've named this part of the campaign FC2K "A#" because this is a the first session I've run with the intention of continuing it as a campaign and it will mainly be the Apprentices most of the time. I have a second group (more on that tomorrow) with some of my main players and that will be the "B" branch though if we can work in some crossovers I will do so.

This was mainly an experiment to check out using Hero Lab and its tactical console to run a session and see if I could tear myself away from our tried and true index card system for d20 games. The rest of the boys were busy so I recruited Apprentice Who to help me out and he picked a Gadgeteer and a Batlesuit as his characters. He immediately started giving them names and a backstory - more than I was actually looking for this time, but I wasn't going to discourage him.

Tres Hombres

Being young and equipped with superpowers, his first instinct was to blast the robots. This proved to be ineffective and resulted in the robots throwing cars at his heroes. So, in a burst of creativity I rarely see in veteran gamers he decided to fly over (jetpack you know) and land on the robot's head, searching for a way to disable it with his technical skills. 

Within a round or two he had a panel open and had pulled the plug  - success! Are we done yet? Oh no!

Meanwhile Mr. Krats had discovered the joys of "power attack" used against a colossal target and was blasting away at one of the megabots and dodging thrown mailboxes and newspaper machines like a pro. 

It's Mr. Krats!

At the same time Callisto was not satisfied with simply shutting down one of the bots - he spent the next few rounds reprogramming the thing to be his friend. So as Krats finishes off the second bot, Callisto and the first bot stomp over and start blasting and throwing cars at the third bot. The battle ends with a crushing blow from the friendly bot smashing down the third bot as the two heroes blast away. Then they turn and walk away with their new friend as the city begins its return to normalcy.

Who sent the bots? What was their mission? What secrets can be learned from examining the reprogrammed bot? We will have to wait until the next session to find out!

DM Notes: This wasn't really intended to kick off a campaign - it was just supposed to be a dry run with the game and Hero Lab to give me some hands-on experience with it. Apprentice Who got very fired up about it though and was talking about it for the next three days, and pretty soon the other Apprentices were asking me if they could play in (Who's) game! So I started looking at my stuff and figuring out a few options and decided to just use Freedom City for anything I run in M&M 2E to give me the maximum amount of material usage. Other games will likely end up in my homebrew Atomic City but this stuff all fits nicely together in Freedom so why not go with it?

Next session will probably happen this coming weekend. I suspect the heroes will be investigating the mystery of the giant robots, and you never know where that might lead.