This Looks Like A Job For: subSPUF! (Inactive)

Game Master Rynjin

"How did you ever accomplish anything with such worthless minions?"

Cogito decides to take matters into his own hands. He attempts to restrain Breakout with a telekinetic grapple.

Grab: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Make a resistance check with his Strength or Dodge, whichever is higher.

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Breakout struggles mightily, but he cannot (ironically) break out of Cogito's mental grip, which has achieved an abnormally strong hold on Breakout due to the hearty breakfast he had mere minutes before the encounter.

Your Natural 20 turned his Success into a failure of one degree. He is Immobile and Vulnerable (he can't move from the spot you're holding him in, and his defensive values are halved).

Amoeba smirks, and tries to bop Breakout on the head with his bat.

Just realized I can't use fast grab/chokehold unless I use an unarmed attack. Poo. At least he can't grab me.

Bop Check: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

The bat has Damage 4, so if I hit he'll have to make a toughness check. Also I see that my amazing luck on dice rolls hasn't changed at all.

Amoeba hits (barely) due to Breakout's defensive abilities being reduced by Cogito's mental bonds!

So, Str 6, Damage 4, DC 25 Toughness?

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

Breakout grunts as Amoeba's bat THWACK's across his face.

"You'll pay for that." he growls.

Dual?

Ya boy

Dmitri smirks, knowing that Breakout lacks the eldritch education to be aware that his magic is not so easily dissuaded. He also unleashes a second blast in hopes of putting down the musclebound idiot.

"Cower before my arcane might, meathead! You are nothing compared to the bears I slew in Russia!"

These blasts all hit for 6 damage.
Homing Blast: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30
This Turn's Blast: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

Toughness: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

LUCK POWAH: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Darn.

This blast smashes into Breakout with crushing force, capitalizing on him being off kilter from Amoeba's hit. He staggers a bit against the pain, then falls unconscious.

Combat over!

"Excellent! Let's take this man in."

JW, is there like a Super-Bounty Bureau, or would we have some separate source of income? Because if we need a separate source of income, Dmitri could easily be an MLG stock broker.

"Agreed. Nice shot, by the way."

Is there like...a section of the police devoted to the weird stuff that goes on in the city? Or are superpowers just so widespread that it doesn't really matter?

There's a super-max prison most metahumans and people with access to super technology or magic get sent. Sometimes, low level metas fall through the cracks.

Let's say yes, you get a bounty. It seems to make sense. While normal humans outnumber metas and other special people (maybe 10-15% of the world has powers orsuper-tech) they're widespread enough and have been around long enough that the police have realized they can't bring in all of them. Sanctioning vigilantes with powers to bring in supers is a good way to deal with super crime (especially if you forfeit the bounty or a portion of it to pay for property damage accrued by you specifically).

However, currency basically has no function in this game that I can tell, so this will basically just be a metagame construct that explains how you pay for rent, food, and any equipment you create/purchase for a scene.

A few minutes later the Superhuman Task Force shows up and coats Breakout in a specially formulated restraining foam.

"Good work, uh...who are you guys again?"

That's an excellent question...we really should figure out a name one of these days. Also, I see what you did there with the containment foam.

Cogito orders his minions to drop their guns and put their hands behind their heads.

I still like Grand Slams.

They do so, and happily file into the paddywagon carrying their former allies as well.

Grand Slams works with me, yeah

"Good work, uh...who are you guys again?"

"We are the Grand Slams, vigilante protectors of Clearwater Bay."

Wait, what did Rynj do there with the containment foam?

SATURDAY MORNING falls out of his portable hole onto the ground. Holding up a finger he adds:"We also do birthdays, weddings, and Bar Mitzvahs."

"Though after that last time, I doubt the rabbi will let us work at any Bar Mitzvahs..."

"Uh...huh. I've heard better names, but you do all right I guess. We're gonna drop this guy off at the Cage. If you guys are registered with the city, they'll wire the money to you within 24 hours. If not, they can help you out at city hall."

Reference to Worm, it's basically an almost-foolproof method of containing pretty much anything that isn't literally God.

"Right, thanks...I THINK we're registered? SATURDAY MORNING, you did remember to take care of the paperwork, right?"

Not really a reference. Containment foam is actually pretty common in a lot of sci-fi and comic book inspiredmedia.

"I took care of the paperwork. In fact, I had to stop this buffoon from 'accidentally' setting it on fire and dropping it in a woodchipper."

Oops. That was the first I'd ever heard of it, my bad.

"Woodchipper...I thought we'd confiscated and destroyed all of his woodchippers? SATURDAY MORNING, you holding out on us, mate? You know that we told you that you couldn't be trusted with those anymore..."

SATURDAY MORNING gasps indignantly. "Well I never! Slander is a serious crime, Doc! I never did anything of the sort! I purposefully tried set it on fire and drop it into a woodchipper.

He turns to Amoeba and Creates a very confused beaver by pulling it out of his pocket. "I go all-organic now, buddy!"

Dmitri spares a baleful glare for his intellectually inferior compatriots.

"Cogito, shall we get these ignoramuses away from the public eye?"

Alex, were you thinking Breakout, acne, acne cream, foam?

"Just because I can't kill people with my brain doesn't mean you're better than me! And SATURDAY MORNING, please don't forget to feed this pet...and don't forget that they can't breathe in your pocket for very long."

With a nod to the departing cops, Amoeba walks over to Cogito so he can teleport them all back.

Is there like a super.net to help us keep up on the supercrime, or would we just watch TV?

Also, do you wanna run this as all battling/investigating/destroying one big organization, or brief snapshots of relatively isolated incidents like this fight versus breakout? Both sounds fun to me - I'm just wondering if you're already leaning one way or another.

For now, it's going to be individual isolated incidents. It lets you ease into the game, and lets me slowly build the world as well (since I'm making up all of this off the cuff).

After a little while though, I'll see about building more of a story arc. It'll be easier once I get a handle on all your characters and how they react to certain scenarios. It helps that your Motivations and Complications are listed right on your character sheets. Amoeba in particuar has given me a good idea for a plot.

However, for the near future, you'll be getting occasional tip offs as to crimes in progress, or reports of things that have been happening. I'm basically just going to feed you several plot hooks and you see which one sounds interesting. Kinda like how my Myrial game worked for the first few batches of missions.

Not long after you get back to base and settle in, something on the TV catches your eye.

...And in the news today, people have been going missing on the lower east side. Nobody is sure where they go or what happens to them, and an exact count is impossible to determine. Over a dozen people have been reported missing as of this broadcast. More on this story as it develops."

Though a superhero message board could be a thing. I just didn't want Alex thinking I was going out of my way to copy Worm. =p. Hard not to, though. One of the best examples of a realistic/well written portrayal of how superheroes would work in the modern age I've seen.

Sounds good, and remember: the best ideas are stolen.

"People disappearing? Unknown exact count? Sounds like my kind of job."

Turning to his compatriots, Dmitri says, "I think it would be best if Cogito and I were to prepare some extra tools for this, however - who knows how deep this criminal network may run."

I invested a fair amount of points into inventing, and I wanna use it. Also, Rynjin - correct me if I'm wrong, but the devices/rituals only work once, whereas the designs can be reused?

Yesh. The things you invent work for one "scene" (for our purposes, consider this one mini-adventure, like tracking this guy down and bringing himmin will be), but you can make more. If you like it enough, you can make it a permanent power.

Sounds good. I'm thinking I'll make some stuff to quickly teleport people we find to a police station or something, so we don't have to take Cogito out of action and some sort of cure-all in case they've been hurt in some way.

Alright, let's do some SCIENCE!

The teleporter would be programmed with the coordinates of the police station, which I think means that it should count as a "familiar" location.

We would also make it Affects Only Others (+0) because the device will probably be something we point at someone (like a ray gun), rather than something they take with them.

Also make it Extended (+1/rank) and Limited to Extended(-1/rank).

So that's 2/rank. I think rank 4 (16 miles extended) would be plenty, so it costs 8 points and the DC is 18.

That would take 8 hours to design and 32 hours to construct, but if I take a routine check with a -5 penalty on both checks, I could design it in 4 and build it in 16.

Meanwhile you can make the healing device. I can do the math for it if you want.

What's your Inventing modifier total? I need to roll it for you in case of...accidents I believe.

+16

NVM. Read it over again and you CAN construct it as a Routine check.

"You two get to work. SATURDAY MORNING, maybe we should go to the scene and see if we can find anything?"

Splitting the party, YAY! And Rynjin, I promise I won't accuse you of copying Worm anymore, I just had to get it out of my system and I'm done now :P

Amoeba and SatAm head off to cracktown to find out who's been abducting people.

Any particular strategies for finding info?

I'm thinking a healing shroud, a la golden fleece. Grants persistent regeneration to all who are touching it.

--HEALING SHROUD--

Regeneration is 1/rank.
Persistent makes it another 1/rank.

I have +16 on expertise: magic, so I can do up to 8 ranks of regeneration. I'll probably make two, just in case.

That means 10 hours to design and 40 hours to complete, except that I shelled out for mental quickness 6 to make artificery faster, so crafting takes me almost no time at all.

--MAGIC CHAINS--

Affliction on wearer: dazed, stunned, unaware. 1/rank
Progressive: +2/rank
Cumulative: +1/rank
Alternate Resistance: +0/rank, initially resisted by dodge (wrapping them in the chains)
Instant Recovery: -1/Rank

3/rank, opposed by fortitude, except for the dodge

15 points, so within my 16 point budget. Should suffice to restrain anyone we come accross.

Not to be that guy, but I don't think crafting is a purely mental skill...

Nein. Planning can be done quickly, but crafting is a physical action.

"So where are we headed, Bob the Blob?"

I assumed mental endeavors meant anything that was primarily an action of the mind - for example, despite the fact that you turn pages when you make a book, it's still a mental endeavor, or so I'd imagine. I'll probably want to change it to quickness 2 or something (didn't realize how big of a deal quickness 6 was, as it drops an hour to a minute), solely for the purposes of crafting, if that's alright.

It's intended to be one of Dmitri's main gimmicks, is all, and it takes ages to craft things normally.

Sure. Though don't you have the points for Quickness 6 normally?

Quickness 3, since quickness 6 mental is 1/2 point per rank. Plus, I don't want physical quickness - doesn't fit the character.

EDIT: Ended up doing Mental Quickness 4 (designs and other purely mental tasks), Crafting 2 (only applies to assembling the gadget itself), and Rituals 1 (only applies to performing the ritual itself).

"Well, let's start at the scene of the nearest disappearance. See if anyone knows anything about it, then work our way from there."

The people around the area seem terrified. Some may know simething, but could take coaxing to get then to talk.

Amoeba goes up to a random passerby. "Excuse me. My friend and I were wondering if we could have a moment of your time? It's about the recent disappearances. We're trying to figure out who or what is behind them. Have you seen anything that could help us out?"

Persuasion: 1d20 ⇒ 2

Oh god. Huff, get in here before I make someone cry.

"I SAW NOTHING!" the man screams, terrified at the puddle asking questions of him.

SATURDAY MORNING saunters up and slaps Amoeba lightly upside the... head? "Hey, buddy, we're just wondering what the funny business is around here. Because that's my job. I bet whoever's behind this couldn't even fill an 11 minute timeslot if their life depended on it!" SATURDAY MORNING grimaces at the Robbie residue on his glove before giving the passerby a friendly pat on the back. "So whaddya say, have you seen anything around?"

Persuasion: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

The residue leaves a large stain on the man's jacket.

Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

"Look, all I know is Tony saw someone get nabbed. Ask him. Just please, don't mention me. Anyone who talks gets grabbed, you know?"

"And where is this Tony fella? I'm not a compass you know, and I'm tankful for it. I worked a job with that North Point guy and lemme tell ya, that guy's a real putz. Got all flustered by my magnetic personality." SATURDAY MORNING leans on the guy's shoulder heavily and grins directly in his face.

Persuasion: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23

"Last I saw of him was under the bridge on the northbound. He sleeps there sometimes."