MNM Amazing Adventures (Inactive)

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And fade to black...

Awesome storytelling, both of you. Thanks for going on this ride with me. It wasn't perfect, but I'm as proud of this campaign as I am of anything I've ever run.

Is there going to be any further wrap up? I feel like there are a number of loose ends to tie up--I mentioned some in a PM to you awhile ago, like what to do with the kids (Dottie wants to take them to Samberly/Sterns to get them to adapt the gamma trap to remove their powers if the kids are willing; also since Samberly/Sterns making the gamma trap is otherwise a dropped plot arc; it bugs me to just leave it).

Likewise, even if Frank has made his heroic sacrifice, it would be interesting to hear if somehow word gets out that he died saving people and/or his ex-wife/child hears about it (perhaps from Dottie if no one else).

I'd like to post some final thoughts as well--my escape post was climax; I was hoping also for denouement. At the same time I know you are exhausted; I don't want to step on your toes, just get some closure. I could post something here if you don't want the end of the game thread mucked up.

Cheers all - been an unexpected blast :)

Kudos to the pair of you, do think you've done the heavy lifting through large sections where the MCU lore was required, but am very proud of how things progressed and how I developed Frank as the game went on.

A couple of post credits scenes would be fitting and who knows set up another season down the line?

Again the collaboration has been as rewarding as anything I've worked on and I do tip my hat to the creative forces you both are.

Cheers to you too, BD! I was glad to have a partner in sort of crime with this and it's been a great pleasure to play with you. Your strong sense of character was well played and you played up a strong growth arc with Frank.

Yes, a post credits sequence is basically what I was thinking. Want to be sure SuperT is okay with it before I post anything.

I'm good with as many post credit scenes as we want. In that moment I just needed to get to the credits. That felt the most Marvelous to me.

I'm good with the kids being taken to Samberly and getting Gamma treatment. I wanted to try to avoid any sort of sinister fate for them that would take away from Dottie saving them. I thought being saddled with a bunch of Darkforce infused kids and teens is a wide variety of nightmares for her and offered a chance for development, but I don't want to cheapen it by having some quasi-villainous element get ahold of them. Maybe Samberly has contacts in old SHIELD agents or facilities where the kids could hole up while things get cleaned up.

Also would love to see where Dottie goes from there. Does she find a new place to hide, or take on a more active role.

Maybe it isn't too cheesy for Frank to have written something that Dottie could deliver. Would give Frank a chance to get a goodbye in.

And I have a teaser scene I'm working on. Not sure if any of us are actually capable or interested in another season. I have ideas, but I'd need some time to develop them, and would need your input, obviously.

Maybe Frank had begun to write a note to his kid before they left for the mission?

Yeah would make sense that he did. Not sure I have the creative chutzpah right now to do that letter justice tho.

I think we could leave it to the imagination of Our imaginary audience.

Will post my denouement scene later tonight.

Bravo DQ. Bravo, simply brilliant and hugely evocative.

You're too kind. :) Been good playing with you on this journey.

Realized I forgot to have Dot do something with the photos of the Roxxon facility and the experimentation chair on her microdot (actually more likely digital) pen--probably either handed off to Samberly to give to SHIELD connections, or uploaded to the Internet with the aid of some unwitting library employee. We'll say one of the two happened, it just ended up on the cutting room floor.

Responding to SuperT further upthread, I'd definitely be down with another season, but I think we all need a break. But if inspiration strikes, SuperTumbler, let me know. Dottie will always be in my head.

Definitely need a break. I had been thinking for a long time of some post credit scenes teasing season 2, but I think right now I don't want to do that.

For season 2 I was looking at dealing with some of the fallout of the Black Widow movie, which we had talked about previously, as well as some Serpent Crown/Roxxon plotlines. The way the Serpent Crown exists in the 616 is a little too high fantasy for Dottie, I think, but something more in line with a pulp interpretation (National Treasure, Indiana Jones) seems like a world Dottie could fit into. Also I'm pretty sure I telegraphed the Serpent characters in the mercenaries.

I am simultaneously not that functional as a GM and also really bored. If you have any thoughts about elements you would want woven into a second season, please go ahead and post. I know BD had ideas about characters.

Well, you asked for it...

I definitely like the idea of exploring some of the fallout of the Black Widow movie, though I expect given the cast of Thunderbolts that might further explore that as well; though I feel like we could do a narrow focus--Dottie helping establish a safehouse for newly mind-freed Widows or something. I would like some spy stuff, which that would fill to some extent.

I'm torn between wanting to work with some organizations (preferably not the kind that just stabs you in the back in the big third hour plot twist, although it doesn't have to be a nice organization), or do something like help Sharon Carter establish her reign as Power Broker in Madripoor, and focusing on the idea of Dottie as dark saint of Brooklyn, helping bolster and protect community centers and homelessness enclaves. On the latter it'd be interesting to see Dottie stepping up during the Decimation. Marvel's left a massive gap in not really exploring what happened during those five years, which creates a perfect opportunity for an RPG setting.

On the personal/character development side, one thing I had hoped to have an opportunity to do but didn't really was really explore Dottie's grief over Peggy and her ability to grieve in general (which is now even more brought to the fore because of Frank's sacrifice). I realize diving into deep character thoughts and angst is not always desirable for RPGs, but at the same time part of what attracts me to the character is trying to crack the nut that is her frozen heart. So just some slower slice of life stuff and NPCs interactions, as well as scenarios that highlight themes of grief and connection are desirable for me.

Related to that is I'd definitely like to have some allies that are just allies. At the risk of going into prior game analysis and critique (and I want to note I know how hard it must have been to keep all the plates spinning in this game and I appreciate all that was there)... Our one main ally was Duke who had an ulterior motive (which in turn has pushed Dottie to remember to be less trusting, not more), and almost all our allies had their own things going on as well. Every relationship was purely transactional. Dottie defaults to anti-social psychology, so that's easy and status quo for her. I'd enjoy the challenge of roleplaying facing the potential of truly transformational connections. Our source of inspiration was the Netflix series, and while all of those could get grim and gritty and have many characters who had their own agendas and face-heel-turns, all of them also had critical NPCs that forced the heroes to go deeper and build friendships. For every Jeri there's a Malcolm, for every Stick there's a Foggy and a Karen, for every Eve there's a Colleen. Of course the key should be building a relationship between the player characters but one or two fleshed out, recurring ally characters who are more than convenient business partners and who we aren't going to curse their inevitable betrayal would be nice. I don't need a sappy Disney sunshine and lollipops situation but I do need elements in a story to include some sentiment and a feeling of success from time to time, and that includes finding one or two NPCs you can count on.

All this said I want to repeat that I know building up RP can be an exhausting ask (and hard on PBP in particular) and dig that GMs and other players may want to just get to the part where we beat people up and have big explosions and/or piece together the clues and solve the puzzle. But I figure it's better to say what I hope for than not--and also give a chance for you to say what's reasonable for me to expect and what's not.

What else? I don't know a huge amount of info about Serpent Society, though I enjoyed the character of Diamondback (the girl, not the douchey guy in Luke Cage) in the Hot Shots comic by Gail Simone. (Hell, I'd love to play a Hot Shots-like campaign.) I think Diamondback was once part of that group (and knew Constrictor). If you have a cool idea for it, go for it.

Only other thought is keep it simple. Deep rather than broad. Or if you wanna do open world and see what comes up that's fine too. I still like mostly street level.

Umm... there's also loose ends not tied up from this game. What the hell was up with the old man and the case full of bones in the subway? What was with the holographic mask guy who attacked us and the "Beast" that sent him? Neither of those seemed to have anything to do with everything else that happened. So perhaps those are seeds yet to germinate.

Speaking of masks, I was half thinking when we got to the Roxxon facility that the big bad we were going to meet was Madam Masque, and that Dr. Darque was some kind of silly pseudonym. Why couldn't brilliant scientist Whitney Frost recover her sanity and using her mad science brilliance create immortality for herself by implanting her consciousness into clones as she ages... built in enemy for Dottie there. Sure I could add it as a complication, but I shouldn't have to for it to be a possibility. I hate the nemesis complication because it basically forces a character to have to show up but then also always survive every encounter (so you know fighting them will always be pointless because somehow they will always get away at the end). I'd rather their appearance be something of a surprise and not know how long they are going to last.

BD I don't suppose I could convince you to play a world-displaced Captain Carter? ;) Ah well...

Finally finally... as much as I can talk all day about plans for season 2, I also encourage taking time to rest and to think about what you want to do. I adore Dottie but I can also lay her down for awhile. I've been thinking about running either some FATE system or Modiphius Fallout RPG here so maybe I can run something y'all play for a bit... and/or if there's some other yen you have to run, SuperT... especially if it's stuff where we can bring in existing characters from various fandoms, I still have the Bionic Woman and Maggie from R.O.D banging around in M&M sheets on my computer from when you were recruiting from that LXG-type game you were trying to run (whatever happened to that? It sounded cool, I just couldn't get my s$&~ together for it at the time). I've also got various OCs of course to try out (though it's harder for me to come up with original superheroes for some reason).

The case full of bones was actually inscribed with the formula for making the murderous mist that killed the maggia folks at the hotel. The formula still exists, so that could come back up, but it was something Negative was using to target them.

The guy to the mask was a plot hook to something that else. Me overcomplicating things. Or really just overthinking how many plot threads needed to be hanging out.

I have thought about using Frost. I'd want her to be a full season villain, not a small role.

Serpent Society are usually pretty much a group of jobbers getting jobbed. They seem to experience a sort of conservation of ninjutsu situation, (or conservation of snakiness, maybe). One of them will be a challenge for Spiderman, and then when they team up with each other they are less effective.

The original Serpent Crown story is cheesy and 70s, but there were some Serpent plotlines from the Ultimate universe that were pretty good updates.

And yes, I'm not charging into anything new right now. I'm currently still running my Friday night face to face group and playing in a Wednesday night Star Trek Adventures game (bi-weekly) on Discord and Roll20. In some ways, I feel way better at that game than I am here on PbP. Its just 2 hours a week, but it is super focused and we get more done than in a month of play by post. I like play by post. I like being about to think about where things are going, look up rules, and otherwise smooth things out, but it does require staying focused for years in order to get anywhere.

I've played very little FATE, but I love the 2d20 system as I've played it in Star Trek, John Carter, and Conan.

I love playing around with pre-existing fandoms/IP. That LXG style game is my greatest love, I think, but I've never quite done a great job of managing everyone's expectations to get the right feel in the game. That is one campaign that I legit have written out a version that includes lots of IP precious to people our age. I've never managed to run the whole thing.

I also recently ran an A-Team vs Predator one shot (PCs all died) with a new game called Everyday Heroes that is sort of d20 Modern reborn with 5E rules. I think you have a pretty good understanding of my specific nerdery.

Also have been looking into that World War Cthulu thing that Modiphius makes. Achtung Cthulu. Don't totally get it, but it looks rad.

Hey, checking in here with some additional thoughts.

I don't think I mentioned this prior, but another thought on future days with Dottie could be Dottie somehow taking over Duke's restaurant (some kind of unlikely shenanigans of him anticipating his death and signing it over to them or who knows). She would of course just turn it into a bakery, though it would probably be (like many bakeries where I live) a combo pastry/sandwich shop/cafe. Just as another fun option for setup. But not the only possibility, of course.

I've Googled Serpent's Crown. Seems like some mystical stuff. Not really appropriate for Dottie (or me). Dottie is a cold war spy, and my favorite genre is spy-meets-superhero with just enough weirdness for fun. My favorite comic book of all time is Birds of Prey. My favorite anime is Read or Die/R.O.D the TV. Power might get high and stuff may look like magic on occasion, but at the root it's sneaky people being clever that wins the day. That's the kind of thing what I'd want to play her in. If you want to run something more mysticky, go for it, but it's not really for me. Joining the Eldritch game was me stretching my boundaries to play mystic comic book for once, but it's really not typically my thing (and I never would have joined a story like Eldritch were you not the one running it). And if you don't want to run spy/street supers that's okay. I'm unnaturally obsessed with Dottie but I can lay her down if I have to. ;)

And as discussed there's plenty of other story types and adventures to be had with a variety of character concepts.

Were you going to post a final "end credit" scene? If not do we want to keep this thread open for chatting or set this to inactive?

Duke was an alias, and is not legally dead or anything, so some forgery shenanigans and whatnot could certainly result in Dottie taking over the restaurant and turning it into a bakery.

I was not thinking of the 70s Serpent Crown, which, you are right, was all kinds of high mystic weirdness even though it started in the somewhat more grounded Captain America comic.

There was a sort of re-visioning of that story in a much less grandiose fashion in the Ultimate universe Marvel-1610. It involved Hell's Kitchen, gangs, Roxxon, and a much more street level version of some of the Serpent Society folks.

Essentially it should be a street level/corporate espionage sort of thing. Less weird than even the Darkforce stuff we were dealing with here.

I will post a couple of end credits teasers. If the series gets cancelled and they are unfulfilled, that's ok.

It will help me to keep a sequel top of mind if the campaign stays active, but it that is annoying I can make it inactive. Just let me know.

Keeping it open works for me. As/when/if we run Season 2 I'm currently exploring some street level heroes and villains* who be a fit.

I'll keep the channels open and work on some ideas, see what pops. What them to be different to Frank but befitting to our corner of the MCU.

Jonathan Powers - The Jester is one that is under consideration, or the Jody Putt incarnation but I'm open to suggestions from the floor.

* When I say villains I'm looking at characters who've been bad guys and flipped or have the potential of a reception arc - akin to Frank**.

**Don't worry DQ - Paste Pot Pete won't make a repitch :)

Duke was an alias, and is not legally dead or anything, so some forgery shenanigans and whatnot could certainly result in Dottie taking over the restaurant and turning it into a bakery.

I was not thinking of the 70s Serpent Crown, which, you are right, was all kinds of high mystic weirdness even though it started in the somewhat more grounded Captain America comic.

There was a sort of re-visioning of that story in a much less grandiose fashion in the Ultimate universe Marvel-1610. It involved Hell's Kitchen, gangs, Roxxon, and a much more street level version of some of the Serpent Society folks.

Essentially it should be a street level/corporate espionage sort of thing. Less weird than even the Darkforce stuff we were dealing with here.

Okay, phew. THat sounds perfect.

I will post a couple of end credits teasers. If the series gets cancelled and they are unfulfilled, that's ok.

Awesome. Both awesome. Is that "Blanche" who survived?

It will help me to keep a sequel top of mind if the campaign stays active, but it that is annoying I can make it inactive. Just let me know.

Would you mind marking *me* as inactive instead, then? That way it's not taking up room in my active campaigns list, so it's easier for me to check activity in other games. Many thanks.

* When I say villains I'm looking at characters who've been bad guys and flipped or have the potential of a reception arc - akin to Frank**.

I don't think whatever we do in the future should necessarily be limited to villains, per se. General gray area and wild card characters would also be suitable--characters who dance the line but are ultimately (a) trying to help, and (b) building friendships/found family with each other. Sorry I know DC better than Marvel, but I'm thinking Secret Six (Gail Simone's run, not the 1960s), not Suicide Squad.

A gritty Agent of SHIELD or grizzled detective type would also work. I mean, if you want to play a villain, do it, but if you're limiting your search because you think the parameters of the setting are forcing that limitation, I wouldn't think of it that way.

It doesn't have to be your character BD, but I've said to Tumbler before I'd also like to have a more moral/ethical character for Dottie to bounce off. Part of why I like her is her interaction with people like Peggy Carter and the banter that ensues.

"You want me to kill him?"
"Do NOT KILL HIM."
"Come on, it'll be quick."

It's troubling when she's the most principled person in the room.

(Mind you I think she would have been in the right to kill Jack, but still.)

And my main issue with Paste Pot Pete was I was hoping for someone on Dottie's level--someone who can pair well with an assassin with a dark past without starting to feel like parody. I thought your take on Constrictor worked great. If we want to do an adventure with some of the odder heroes/villains, I mean, I could always research Stilt Man or something. To me the question isn't just who do you want to play, but who plays well with each other? Part of Marvel is chemistry between the heroes working together. I understand if Dottie doesn't seem an exciting partner but we can always look at other options.